As I’ve taught classes and given talks on the “New Evangelization,” I’ve been struck at how both Jesus and the apostles make a regular part of their message not only the positive proclamation of the Good News that Christ has, by his sacrifice, won redemption for the whole world, but also the terrible consequences of neglecting such an offer: namely, hell.

Yet seldom is this foundational part of the New Testament’s message heard in the contemporary Church. Why are we so afraid of speaking about hell?

Some common reactions: “Our religion is a religion of love, not of fear.” “People already have a bad self-image, and this could make them feel worse.” “Fear of hell is an unworthy motive for being a Christian.” “We shouldn’t be trying to frighten people into being good.”

While in a short article I can’t respond to reactions like these, I do want to affirm the necessity of making sure that, in our thinking, preaching and teaching, we stick with what Jesus and the apostles have told us to communicate to people. They must have good reasons.

When only the positive offer of salvation is taught and proclaimed, and we are silent about the consequences of not responding to this amazing offer of mercy, it is very easy to see the call to the New Evangelization as an “optional extra” — nice but not really necessary.

After decades of silence about the consequence of not responding to the mercy of God by a life of faith, repentance and obedience — namely, hell — an alien worldview has colonized the minds of vast numbers of our fellow Catholics that presumes that virtually everyone will be saved, except perhaps a few really notorious mass murderers.

But, of course, murder is only one of a whole number of grave sins that, if unrepented, will exclude people from the Kingdom of God: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

This is not an isolated text; similar lists of sins that will exclude people from heaven are contained in Galatians 5:13, 19-21; Ephesians 5:5-6; Revelation 22:14-15 — and many other places as well.

Jesus is particularly emphatic about the absolute necessity of turning away from serious sin if we are to enter the Kingdom: “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire” (Matthew 18:9).

He clearly tells us to not fear those who can kill the body, but to fear the eternal punishment due to unrepented sin in hell (Luke 12:4-5).

It isn’t just a wide range of unrepented immorality that will exclude people from the Kingdom — but perhaps the gravest sin of all: unbelief:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

Father Francis Martin, in one of his biblical/theological essays, calls unbelief in the revelation of Jesus “the root sin of the world.”

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath,” John 3:36 states.

There are literally dozens of New Testament passages that speak of the eternal consequences of not repenting, of not believing, of not living a life of obedience as a disciple of Jesus.

It is manifest that Jesus and the apostles thought it important that the negative consequences of failing to respond in thought, word and deed to the message of salvation were clearly communicated to their hearers.

Jesus knew what was in the hearts of human beings and knew that the fear of hell, while not the end point of the Christian life, is a very good beginning if it motivates repentance.

And while “perfect love casts out fear” of punishment and of the Day of Judgment (1 John 4:17-18), the spiritual wisdom of the Church makes clear that we can’t jump to the end of the journey without a good beginning, patiently working through each step of purification and cleansing.

St. Catherine of Siena notes how the initial stage of the journey is characterized by a very useful fear of hell, a “slavish fear,” as she puts it, which later moves on to what she calls “mercenary love” and, finally, on to “perfect love.” You don’t jump to perfect love without a good beginning.

St. John of the Cross presupposes that before people are really ready to undertake the spiritual journey they have been deeply struck by the shortness of life, the narrowness of the road leading to life (Matthew 7:14), the strictness of the judgment, how “the just one is scarcely saved” (1 Peter 4:18), how “perdition is very easy and salvation very difficult” and the need for profound repentance from sin and wholehearted surrender to God (The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 1;1).

St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, acknowledges that the most important motivation for serving God is pure love, but he also cites the useful role of “servile fear” in the spiritual journey (as also does St. Francis de Sales):

“We should also strongly praise fear of his Divine majesty. For not only is filial fear something pious and very holy, but so also is servile fear. Even if it brings a person nothing better or more useful, it greatly aids him or her to rise from mortal sin, and once such a one has arisen, one easily attains to a greater filial fear” (370).

If we are to have a strong Church and a dynamic evangelization, we need to pass on to everyone all that Jesus and the apostles have commanded us to pass on, including the consequences of failing to believe and obey.

We need not be so afraid of people being afraid of hell. It’s an excellent beginning to the spiritual journey — and continues to be of value even as the spiritual life progresses.

Thank you for this wonderful, Catholic Christian article! There seems to be so much confusion today about what Jesus meant when He spoke of hell. But is Jesus merely and intellectual or philosophical proposition for our approach to earthly life, or is He, in fact, the Saviour, whose self-sacrificial love poured out on the Cross actually saves us from the real and eternal consequences of our sins against God? Why would we need a crucified Jesus if we can earn our own way to Heaven?

Thank you once again, Ralph, for staying the course and reaching out to your readers with the call to repent and believe!

With prayers now and always for our dear Holy Father, Pope Francis!

Your brother in Christ,

Clinton

Posted by Lin on Thursday, Oct, 3, 2013 8:26 PM (EST):

@bob roy…........AMEN!

Posted by Doug on Thursday, Oct, 3, 2013 1:41 PM (EST):

DeCarlo, you could benefit from some research. You write, “Vatican II changed much, especially the mass, which was supposed to be never changed.” But one of your own Catholic references says otherwise. See

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09790b.htm
under the subhead “The origin of the Mass”, where you’ll find statements like “The Western Mass, like all Liturgies…” [plural], “Out of that earliest Liturgy, the language being changed to Latin, developed the two great parent rites of the West, the Roman and the Gallican…” and so on.
These in fact are the tip of the iceberg. Further reading, especially in articles about prominent “Catholic” cities of yore, will show many other changes.

Posted by Lin on Wednesday, Oct, 2, 2013 8:32 PM (EST):

@DeCarlo…........Very well said! You are so right! No one EVER had to interpret Bishop Sheen! And your last line says it all! Pray and fast that we will persevere in this challenging time!

Posted by DeCarlo on Wednesday, Oct, 2, 2013 5:07 PM (EST):

The Jews rejected Jesus (God) as the Messiah. Jesus said, the only way to the father is through me. Jews cannot get into heaven. According to the post Vatican popes, no doctrine was changed. When I went to Catholic school, pre-Vatican II, Jews, and other religions could not get into heaven. So, apparently, they changed the infallible doctrine, no salvation outside the church. Vatican II changed much, especially the mass, which was supposed to be never changed. The church was vibrant pre-Vatican II, now, since the disastrous Council, the modernists want to reform it. They won’t admit that Vatican II almost destroyed the church, empty churches, seminaries, convents, Catholic schools, almost no one goes to confession. We had long lines at confession pre-Vatican II. We had a clergy, when they spoke, didn’t have to be interpreted, as Pope Francis and most of the clergy do today. Listen to Bishop Sheen and tell me he needs interpretation. (not). Many of you were born after Vatican II or many of you were too young to remember before 1962. The church was vibrant. It didn’t need an “update”. The modernists wanted to bring the church into the modern world. What they should had done is bring the modern world into the church.

Posted by Rita on Wednesday, Oct, 2, 2013 2:08 PM (EST):

In regards to the salvation of the Jews, who at this point in salvation history, have not yet accepted Jesus as the Messiah, I would like to quote the Catholic Catechism: (839) “Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to God in various ways.” (325)“The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God’s revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews “belong the sonship,the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh is the Christ (328)“for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”

Posted by Doug on Monday, Sep, 30, 2013 7:16 PM (EST):

In addressing religious issues which are addressed by the Bible (as this is), it’s often useful to consider the original languages of that book. This is especially true of “hell”, a word of later, north European origin which was not in the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek vocabularies of the Bible writers. In particular it will be worth one’s time to research the Hebrew word “sheol” and the Greek “Gehenna” to see scriptural ideas behind the Jacobean idea of hell and hellfire torture.
More important, it should be the aim of Christians to clean up God’s name, after they pray for that in the Paternoster: “Hallowed [sanctified, cleaned up, made holy] be thy name…” If we prosecute those who use torture in the world for any reason, how can we allow it to be implied that our God is no better than these creatures of his? Or are we content to have a God ‘made in our image’? (cf. Gen 1:27) Will a decent father torture a child for misbehaving? Cf. Luke 11:11 ff.
There is also the question of divine justice which, again, should be a large step better than our own. God’s word says, “For he that is dead is justified from sin.” (Romans 6:7, Douay. The modern equivalent of “justified” is “acquitted”.) That is why Paul goes on to say what has now become proverbial: “For the wages of sin is death.” For a person to be thereafter subjected to any punishment is illegal under double-jeopardy prohibitions of “civilized” societies. How much more so, then…
More thoughts on the matter are available at this link, which can be researched in any Bible translation.http://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/what-is-hell/

The gospel according to Rita. By your words and beliefs you have called Jesus a liar and deny the truth. You may believe that you are a kumquat but that does not change the truth that you are not.

Jesus tells us that whoever denies him denies the father, that we must eat his body and drink his blood to have eternal life, that we must be baptized to enter into eternal life, among other requirements. Those who do not meet these are going to be feeling the heat whether you and others believe it or not.

When did the gospel change?

Posted by DeCarlo on Monday, Sep, 30, 2013 8:48 AM (EST):

Bob roy. Attend the Latin mass and you will return to the Altar rail and communion on the tongue, and great reverence for the mass. I have been attending for the past 10 yrs. and only when absolutely necessary will I attend the Novus ordo missae or, as many of us traditional Catholics called it, the protestantized mass.

Posted by Rita on Monday, Sep, 30, 2013 8:46 AM (EST):

I would like to correct a “clerical error” in my previous comments. I meant to say - I do not believe that the person who does not believe in Jesus cannot be saved. I do believe that the person who believes in God (The Father)can be saved, even if they deny Jesus, as the Jews do. I believe that the person who refuses to believe in God, in the face of irrefutable proof by just looking at nature, will not be saved unless they change before they die. However, we don’t know what “extra proof” God might give them, another chance, before their soul leaves their body permanently. But only God can determine that. When Jesus was asked by the apostles “Then who can be saved?” He said “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Posted by SimonCyreno on Monday, Sep, 30, 2013 1:22 AM (EST):

Please send a copy of this article to the Vatican, c/o Pope Francis.

Posted by bob roy on Sunday, Sep, 29, 2013 9:07 PM (EST):

I wish they would return the church to the days when I was an alter boy,where the communion rail was there. the communion was put on the tongue and there was a much more reverence for the church and the priests,more joy and love.PEOPLE dressed much better and with full respect of GOD’S HOUSE.

Posted by Mike on Sunday, Sep, 29, 2013 7:30 PM (EST):

If you check a Biblical concordance or do a Bible e-search for “fear of the Lord” it reveals an amazing variety of edifying passages on how fear establishes a good beginning for the spiritual life.

Posted by Rita on Sunday, Sep, 29, 2013 4:56 PM (EST):

What about the Jews? Many Jews are as devout in their belief and acknowledgment of God as Christians are of Jesus. But they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah, so they do not believe in Jesus. St. Faustina tells us about The Divine Mercy of Jesus. Blessed Mother of Medjugorje said that most people go to purgatory. Most people in the world are not Christians. Jesus knows the suffering of every person, and feels it to the very depths of His soul, just as the sinner does. He knows and understands the experiences, feelings and motives of every person. God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell, and I do not believe that the person who does not believe in Jesus, but who does blieve in God, will be saved. It is not so cut and dried as it is presented here in Ralph Martin’s article. I do believe that the person who has no “fear of the Lord” and lets himself or herself be drawn into evil behavior and has no desire to leave that state is condemning himself or herself to hell. But that is a choice that person makes. They are in desperate need of our prayers.

Posted by Bob on Sunday, Sep, 29, 2013 8:07 AM (EST):

With all the evil going on in the world perhaps it’s time to wake up and say yes, Jesus didn’t only speak of Heaven, God’s kingdom, love and peace. He truly did come to bring a sword, dividing families into who and what they believe in.

Posted by Lin on Sunday, Sep, 29, 2013 7:55 AM (EST):

Great article! Recently, I was a Confirrmation sponsor for my nephew and the candidates in his class stated that they did not believe in hell! How can one have reached the age of Confirmation (16 in this parish) and not believe in the existence of hell? Very poor catechesis in our churches!

Posted by David Millner on Sunday, Sep, 29, 2013 2:02 AM (EST):

A couple of comments, both practical when you’re trying to reach people where they are a la Pope Francis. Hell isn’t the best place to start. I recall that when I really started my journey, I needed to shove the reality of hell aside until I was ready to deal with it. And second, the effects of sin is immediate. We aren’t dealing with abstract moral precepts. Sin harms you, the people you love, the people you work with, your country and your society. And this happens right now in this life. This can be pointed out without relating to what, unfortunately, most of the unconverted view as an outdated medievalism. Once you can get people to start actually looking at the Gospels, they will run smack dab into everything this article lays out so well.

Posted by Manfred on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 11:54 PM (EST):

The response to Pope Francis’ Big Interview gives us the answer. Vatican II was pastoral rather than doctrinal. People believed they had free rein in their lives. Then, John Paul II and Benedict appeared to reassert the doctrinal nature of the Church. Now Francis appears to be relaxing it again and people are rejoicing. Ralph Martin is correct. The most important event in the 20th century were the apparitions of the Blessed Mother at Fatima in 1917. At the third apparition in May, she showed the three young seers (correction: US) a vision of Hell. Why? To demonstrate that Hell exists and human souls go there.

Posted by Saundra Lee on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 11:18 PM (EST):

Our Lord said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven.” We must repent. Go to Confession. It’s very uplifting. And afterwards, we Go and sin no more.”

Posted by BILL KEATING on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 9:05 PM (EST):

BLESS US O LORD, FORGIVE US OUR SINS AND BRING ALL SOULS TO HEAVEN ESPECIALLY THOSE MOST IN NEED OF YOUR MERCY. AMEN.

Posted by Catharine on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 6:41 PM (EST):

People who make it their business to tally these things say that Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke about hell more than any other single topic. There was a reason for it: although God’s forgiveness is readily available to all who will repent of their sins, one must sincerely repent to avail oneself of God’s forgiveness. There are consequences for repenting, conversion and belief—eternal consequences. There are also eternal consequences for refusal to acknowledge one’s own sinfulness, and for refusal to repent, convent and believe, which means live the whole Gospel. Not just some cherry-picked portions.
Since our bishops and priests will not preach the whole Gospel of God, it is incumbent upon all of us laypeople to do this—as Father John Corapi used to say, it is not an act of Christian charity to confirm another person in their mortal sins.

Posted by Lisa Spear on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 3:44 PM (EST):

Mr Martin, Excellent! Your next-to-last sentence points to what I think is key to your article: consequences. Our culture has become one in which no one seems to think there are consequences to action (or, sometimes, inaction), and disassociates personal responsibility from exercise of free will. You nailed it!
katlab58: You, too, say much in few words. We also suffer the effects of a dearth of wisdom in our world today.
Thank you both.

Posted by Leslie Wetter on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 3:08 PM (EST):

Matthew was a tax collector a despised sinner. Jesus did not tell him he’d go to hell if he didn’t follow him. No, Jesus’ invited him with the loving words of follow me. Give up your life of sin and follow me. Condemnation was not what attracted sinners. He ate with them, he hung out with them. I don’t deny that He talked about hell. However His actions, His ways are what attracted sinners not empty words like hell.

Posted by Robert A.Rowland on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 2:37 PM (EST):

Thank you Dr. Martin for a frontal assault on a subject that seems to have been dormant for over 50 years. What is it about Vatican II that has so downgraded God’s greatest gift for our salvation. Before the Council, lines for Confession were often blocks long, Now they have dwindled to only an insignificant few. Sin has certainly not been dormant. It is going to be a Herculean task for New Evangelization to again reach the peak in evangelization generated by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen with Life is Worth Living that was summarily decimated by VCII.

Posted by Leslie Wetter on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 2:10 PM (EST):

Hell is within the minds of those who are in doubt and fear. Did not Jesus also say to forgive ones enemy’s? He was the physician that spoke about love. He persuaded the prostituentes, tax collectors, adulterers, pagans, etc. to give up their sinful ways with love not fear of hell. He did not judge. Those who crucified Jesus did so out of fear, which stimulated hate. Fear of hell generates hate of those on earth.
I believe that Jesus was most concerned with loving one another as I have loved you. Love is heavenly,not hell bent. It has been my experience that listening to others who share different beliefs while peacefully sharing my own as comparison has attracted others. Peace not damnation will encourage sinners to give up their ways and follow Jesus. Preach love and peace as the saints did, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Anthony of Padua did. Look at how many million have followed by their example to this day. They lived as Jesus did in poverty and humility. They also preaced by example not by words alone just as Jesus did.

Thanks, Ralph, for your absolutely outstanding article. If we are not going to hear it from the pulpit, the Holy Spirit will find other ways to make God’s message of love and mercy known! Deo gratias!

Posted by Mike on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 12:05 PM (EST):

poetcomic1, judgmentalism is but one of the sins against we are warned in the Scriptures. It is not the only one, and it cuts both ways.

Posted by Patti Day on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 11:11 AM (EST):

We only need to look at the numbers of abortions performed in the United States to see how many souls might be lost from that one grievous sin alone. That’s hundreds of thousands of our sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, friends, the people we love, who are in mortal danger if they don’t repent and seek forgiveness. Dr. Ralph Martin speaks the truth.

Posted by Richard on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 10:53 AM (EST):

We miss the fear of damnation at one end of the spectrum, and we miss the beauty of holiness at the other. So much of daily Catholic life takes place in the warm, cosy, fuzzy, cheerful middle ground - it’s rather boring.
Of course we shouldn’t use the fear of hell as a bludgeon to enforce submission. Maybe that was our mistake in earlier times. But neither should we lurch to the opposite extreme and kid ourselves that all must be saved.

Posted by Sam on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 9:48 AM (EST):

Amen! Preach the Whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.

Posted by Jack Gordon on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 7:47 AM (EST):

I am sure this was written before Pope Francis’ recent interview. It is excellent and its title, in light of the interview, carries a double entendre, also perhaps referring to the fear many of us felt after reading the America article. We—the Church’s ministers and people—have been afraid for decades, as Mr. Martin says, of proclaiming both sides of the Good Word, the attractive and the dreadful; there’s simply no denying that. But now, instead of correcting its tack and directing the Barque of Peter onto the right course, we seem to be steering harder into our current course.

Posted by Cathy on Saturday, Sep, 28, 2013 3:02 AM (EST):

@poetcomic1 We are not judging them we are just point out that those who do these actions (mortal sin) and don’t repent WILL go to hell. If that bothers you go snip out parts of the New Testament. The first thing you should snip out of your new Heaven’s Our Entitlement Bible is 1 Corinthians 5:11-13 because it says, “But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat. For what have I to do to judge them that are without? Do not you judge them that are within? For them that are without, God will judge. Put away the evil one from among yourselves.”

Posted by TeaPot562 on Friday, Sep, 27, 2013 10:10 PM (EST):

Denial of the reality of Hell as a punishment for unrepented serious sin may be a consequence of the English-speaking world’s interpretation of Vatican II.

The catechisms rewritten for younger people after V-II don’t seem to mention it as a real possibility.
TeaPot562

Posted by Mark on Friday, Sep, 27, 2013 9:38 PM (EST):

Mr. Martin, I loved your book. The scourge of universalism is everywhere where I live. Even among the most devout they are hard pressed to acknowledge that souls may actually go to hell. I find it curious that they easily believe that the angels are there, as somehow they are worth so much less than humans. Your book, and its bibliography, is outstanding. As it mentions, part of the problem is anthropomorphism: God will be upset (for eternity, evidently) if a human is damned. (Yet again, curiously, He isn’t bothered by angels being there).

During a recent homily on the angels gathering up the wicked and burning them like chaff, the priest actually preached that ‘this shows that all manner of people, including those we dislike, make up the church and make up heaven.’ My jaw dropped. “Never, but never, speak of the reality of hell,” seems to be the order of the day. Indeed, I think fewer believe in hell than the Real Presence.

Posted by Paul OSF on Friday, Sep, 27, 2013 9:10 PM (EST):

I think it is not fear of the topic when it comes to the homilies. It is an unwritten tradition here (Hawaii) that the homily subject must grow out of the readings (usually the Gospel). Since there are passages which do not deal with Hell…

Posted by Doug O on Friday, Sep, 27, 2013 7:30 PM (EST):

I believe that this is the reason that so few Catholics go to the Sacrament of Penance, yet virtually everyone in the church on Sunday goes to receive the Holy Eucharist. I am not judging people, just wondering. Many of my Catholic friends find it difficult to believe that they can commit serious sin. I am not a theologian so I point them to the Catechism. I always wind up lending them my copy because not one of them has their own. This is a very sad state for the Church in this country—where does the responsibility lie?

Posted by Shane Kapler on Friday, Sep, 27, 2013 4:38 PM (EST):

Dr. Martin - per usual, you are thought-provoking, Scriptural, and filled with the fire (not of judmentalism) but of the Spirit.

Fisrt words of Jesus’ public ministry in both Matthew and Mark? “Repent.”

Posted by DeCarlo on Friday, Sep, 27, 2013 12:27 PM (EST):

Ralph Martin, you should have addressed this article to the clerics. THEY are the ones who never talk about hell, sin, the devil, etc. When I was young, pre-Vatican II, the sermons were fire and brimstone, along with love. Now, we have lovefests for sermons. Jesus taught love, but He agitated at times. e.g. the turning over the tables of the money changers in the temple and he didn’t have kind words for the Pharisees.

The clergy should go back to the fire and brimstone sermons. The church were full at that time. I never heard anyone say that they weren’t going back to church because of a fiery sermons. Now, with the lovefests, we have a low attendance rate at mass. I, myself, attend the Latin mass, where it is like going back into the 1950’s.We have a 95% attendance rate and I love it.

Posted by poetcomic1 on Friday, Sep, 27, 2013 11:48 AM (EST):

I’ve looked at a dozen famous paintings of The Last Judgment. Not once in great medieval or later religious art is the Christ of Judgment portrayed with a scowl or look of anger or disapproval. The face of Christ is the central image of Judgment and it is sublimely still, calm and beautiful beyond words. It is the silent face that confronts Pilate when he asks ‘What is truth?’. Of those who damn people right and left and cite scripture doing so THEY should be VERY afraid - and if you don’t know why, I could cite some OTHER scripture to you.

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